Core Design Principles Research Articles

FMB: A functional manipulation benchmark for generalizable robotic learning

In this paper, we propose a real-world benchmark for studying robotic learning in the context of functional manipulation: a robot needs to accomplish complex long-horizon behaviors by composing individual manipulation skills in functionally relevant ways. The core design principles of our Functional Manipulation Benchmark (FMB) emphasize a harmonious balance between complexity and accessibility. Tasks are deliberately scoped to be narrow, ensuring that models and datasets of manageable scale can be utilized effectively to track progress. Simultaneously, they are diverse enough to pose a significant generalization challenge. Furthermore, the benchmark is designed to be easily replicable, encompassing all essential hardware and software components. To achieve this goal, FMB consists of a variety of 3D-printed objects designed for easy and accurate replication by other researchers. The objects are procedurally generated, providing a principled framework to study generalization in a controlled fashion. We focus on fundamental manipulation skills, including grasping, repositioning, and a range of assembly behaviors. The FMB can be used to evaluate methods for acquiring individual skills, as well as methods for effectively combining and ordering such skills in order to solve complex, multi-stage manipulation tasks. We also offer an imitation learning framework that includes a suite of policies trained to solve the proposed tasks. This enables researchers to utilize our tasks as a versatile toolkit for examining various parts of the pipeline. For example, researchers could propose a better design for a grasping controller and evaluate it in combination with our baseline reorientation and assembly policies as part of a pipeline for solving multi-stage tasks. Our dataset, object CAD files, code, and evaluation videos can be found on our project website: https://functional-manipulation-benchmark.github.io .

Performance management in the prosocial market economy: a new paradigm for economic performance and sustainability

Purpose The purpose of this multi-voiced paper is to propose a prosocial paradigm for the field of performance management and management control systems. This new paradigm suggests cultivating prosocial behaviour and prosocial groups in organizations to simultaneously achieve the objectives of economic performance and sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The authors share a common concern about the future of humanity and nature. They challenge the influential assumption of economic man from neoclassical economic theory and build on evolutionary science and the core design principles of prosocial groups to develop a prosocial paradigm. Findings Findings are based on the premise of the prosocial paradigm that self-interested behaviour may outperform prosocial behaviour within a group but that prosocial groups outperform groups dominated by self-interest. The authors explore various dimensions of performance management from the prosocial perspective in the private and public sectors. Research limitations/implications The authors call for theoretical, conceptual and empirical research that explores the prosocial paradigm. They invite any approach, including positivist, interpretive and critical research, as well as those using qualitative, quantitative and interventionist methods. Practical implications This paper offers implications from the prosocial paradigm for practitioners, particularly for executives and managers, policymakers and educators. Originality/value Adoption of the prosocial paradigm in research and practice shapes what the authors call the prosocial market economy. This is an aspired cultural evolution that functions with market competition yet systematically strengthens prosociality as a cultural norm in organizations, markets and society at large.

TDSQL: Tencent Distributed Database System

Distributed databases have become indispensable in contemporary computing and data processing, owing to their pivotal role in ensuring high availability and scalability. They effectively cater to the requirements of data management and high-concurrency access. However, developing a distributed database system that is well-suited for diverse application scenarios, particularly for large-scale applications, presents several challenges. These challenges include ensuring data consistency and achieving high levels of performance. This paper presents TDSQL, a distributed database system that prioritizes core design principles of distributed systems, including high availability, strong consistency, and scalability. In particular, TDSQL has achieved high performance through over a decade of practical experience and optimization in various modules, such as the kernel, synchronous replication, and transaction processing, in large-scale application scenarios. By conducting the TPC-C benchmark test, TDSQL demonstrated outstanding performance, achieving a throughput of 814 million tpmC across 1650 database nodes, with a jitter rate of less than 0.2%. This jitter rate is an order of magnitude lower than the standard required, showcasing the system's stability and reliability. During the 8-hour TPC-C standard stress test, TDSQL successfully completed over 860 billion transactions and processed 40 trillion order details, with zero forced rollbacks and zero data inconsistency.

Advancements of CRISPR-Mediated Base Editing in Crops and Potential Applications in Populus.

Base editing represents a cutting-edge genome editing technique that utilizes the CRISPR system to guide base deaminases with high precision to specific genomic sites, facilitating the targeted alteration of individual nucleotides. Unlike traditional gene editing approaches, base editing does not require DNA double-strand breaks or donor templates. It functions independently of the cellular DNA repair machinery, offering significant advantages in terms of both efficiency and accuracy. In this review, we summarize the core design principles of various DNA base editors, their distinctive editing characteristics, and tactics to refine their efficacy. We also summarize their applications in crop genetic improvement and explore their potential contributions to forest genetic engineering.

Tissue Active Matter: Integrating Mechanics and Signaling into Dynamical Models.

The importance of physical forces in the morphogenesis, homeostatic function, and pathological dysfunction of multicellular tissues is being increasingly characterized, both theoretically and experimentally. Analogies between biological systems and inert materials such as foams, gels, and liquid crystals have provided striking insights into the core design principles underlying multicellular organization. However, these connections can seem surprising given that a key feature of multicellular systems is their ability to constantly consume energy, providing an active origin for the forces that they produce. Key emerging questions are, therefore, to understand whether and how this activity grants tissues novel properties that do not have counterparts in classical materials, as well as their consequences for biological function. Here, we review recent discoveries at the intersection of active matter and tissue biology, with an emphasis on how modeling and experiments can be combined to understand the dynamics of multicellular systems. These approaches suggest that a number of key biological tissue-scale phenomena, such as morphogenetic shape changes, collective migration, or fate decisions, share unifying design principles that can be described by physical models of tissue active matter.

Self-Provisioning Infrastructures for the Next Generation Serverless Computing

Serverless computing has ushered in a transformative paradigm, with a promise to alleviate developers from the intricacies of infrastructure management. However, current serverless platforms predominantly offer only serverless compute capabilities. As a consequence, the application developers are once again tasked to explicitly provision and manage the backend services (BaaS), such as object stores or API gateways, the infrastructure, and the configuration models. This violates the main promise of serverless computing and erases much of the practical benefits of the serverless paradigm. It also introduces the challenges of managing the application execution environment, which includes maintaining provisioning and deployment scripts, configuring and managing access permissions, and scaling the services during runtime. To address these challenges, in this paper we introduce a novel paradigm for the next generation of serverless computing, called self-provisioning infrastructure. The self-provisioning infrastructure is an infrastructure that is capable to automatically and autonomously (with zero-configuration and zero-touch) provision serverless functions, their infrastructure, and their supporting BaaS services. To achieve this vision, we introduce novel design principles, models, and mechanisms that are formalized via novel programming, function, and system models. With this novel paradigm, we intend to fortify the core design principles of serverless computing but also extend them to the entire application execution environment. By doing so, we aim to enable the next-generation serverless computing in the Edge-Cloud continuum.

Designing Dual-Responsive Drug Delivery Systems: The Role of Phase Change Materials and Metal-Organic Frameworks.

Stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems (DDSs) offer precise control over drug release, enhancing therapeutic efficacy and minimizing side effects. This review focuses on DDSs that leverage the unique capabilities of phase change materials (PCMs) and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to achieve controlled drug release in response to pH and temperature changes. Specifically, this review highlights the use of a combination of lauric and stearic acids as PCMs that melt slightly above body temperature, providing a thermally responsive mechanism for drug release. Additionally, this review delves into the properties of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8), a stable MOF under physiological conditions that decomposes in acidic environments, thus offering pH-sensitive drug release capabilities. The integration of these materials enables the fabrication of complex structures that encapsulate drugs within ZIF-8 or are enveloped by PCM layers, ensuring that drug release is tightly controlled by either temperature or pH levels, or both. This review provides comprehensive insights into the core design principles, material selections, and potential biomedical applications of dual-stimuli responsive DDSs, highlighting the future directions and challenges in this innovative field.

Augmenting Trust in Robo Advisor Experiences Through Thoughtful UX Design

These tech-savvy investments are an easy part of the future of financial advice - but how well consumers can trust them is just as important. In this paper, we consider how deliberate design can build trust in robo-advisor platforms through their user experience. In this post, we look at the vital elements of a trustful user experience by going through core design principles and user interaction strategies. We aim to understand the users’ attitudes and behavior towards robo-advisors by an intensive review of the current literature and a thorough methodology. What is persuasive is a combination of transparency, usability, and having personalized interactions that our results show are very conducive to building trust. The research will also involve designing a UX and developing a prototype evaluated with the help of feedback and performance metrics. The results show a substantial bettering of user trust and satisfaction, demonstrating the crucial role that UX design has in the competitive development of robo-advisor entries.

Computational Investigation of the Mechanical Response of a Bioinspired Nacre-like Nanocomposite under Three-Point Bending

Natural biological nanocomposites, like nacre, demonstrate extraordinary fracture toughness, surpassing their base materials, attributed to their intricate staggered hierarchical architectures integrating hard and soft phases. The enhancement of toughness in these composites is often linked to the crack-deflection mechanism. Leveraging the core design principles that enhance durability, resilience, and robustness in organic materials, this paper describes the use of computational modeling and simulation to perform a three-point bending test on a 3D staggered nanocomposite intentionally crafted to mimic the detailed microstructure of nacre. We adopted a previously proposed interfacial zone model that conceptualizes the “relatively soft” layer as an interface between the “hard” mineral tablets and the microstructure’s interlayer spaces to examine how the microstructure and interface characteristics affect the mechanical responses and failure mechanisms. By comparing the model’s predictions with experimental data on natural nacre, the simulations unveil the mechanisms of tablet separation through adjacent layer sliding and crack deflection across interfacial zones. This study offers a robust numerical method for investigating the fracture toughening mechanisms and damage evolution and contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex interplays within biomimetic materials.

Reconfigurable Antennas for Wireless Communication: Design Mechanism, State of the Art, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

The rapid development of wireless technology has heightened the requirement for antenna performance. Traditional antennas, characterized by their static performance, are no longer sufficient to accommodate the dynamic requirements of modern wireless systems. The advent of reconfigurable antennas has opened new horizons for unleashing the full potential of wireless communication systems. These antennas are versatile and can switch various performance modes in a simple yet ingenious structure. Based on the cutting‐edge research, this paper deeply explores their core design principles, the latest breakthroughs, and the ingenious methods. Through an in‐depth analysis of a multitude of reconfigurable antenna design cases, existing design methods are categorized into four categories: electronic and optical switches, structural physical change, smart materials, and bistable composites. Each category is subjected to a meticulous dissection, revealing the underlying design mechanisms, highlighting innovativeness, and discussing both the strengths and limitations. Furthermore, by conducting a comprehensive comparative analysis, this paper concludes the forthcoming challenges and prospective trajectories for this research domain. Therefore, this paper can serve as a valuable reference for researchers seeking to deepen their understanding and application of various reconfiguration methods in the design of reconfigurable antennas, guiding them toward the forefront of antenna technology innovation.

Discursive Modulation in Open Source Software: How Online Communities Shape Novelty and Complexity

We study the development of two open source software (OSS) web frameworks to understand how OSS communities shape software novelty and complexity in the absence of strong organizational hierarchies. We examine how projects engage in distinct “discursive modulation practices” to imprint the community’s shared core doctrines and design principles onto the software thereby shaping its novelty and complexity. We borrow the concept of modulation from audio synthesis to explain how a pre-existing signal—in our case, the ongoing community discourse—gets modulated to produce varying sounds—in our case the novelty and complexity of the software. The concept of modulation offers a lens to understand how emergent, community-wide development activities are influenced by filtering of discursive positions and mixing of those positions, thereby shaping the artifact’s novelty and complexity. Our research shows that the modulation of novelty exhibits a range from “proximal” to “distal” searches for new features, while the modulation of complexity varies between “integration” and “deprecation.” By drawing on these concepts, we formulate a theory that explains how modulation results in alternative OSS community approaches to shaping software novelty and complexity, and how this process reflects, and is reflected in, the resulting software artifact.

Artificial Modulation and Rewiring of Cell Cycle Progression Using Synthetic Circuits in Fission Yeast.

Cell cycle control is a central aspect of the biology of proliferating eukaryotic cells. However, progression through the cell cycle relies on a highly complex network, making it difficult to unravel the core design principles underlying the mechanisms that sustain cell proliferation and the ways in which they interact with other cellular pathways. In this context, the use of a synthetic approach to simplify the cell cycle network in unicellular genetic models such as fission yeast has opened the door to studying the biology of proliferating cells from unique perspectives. Here, we provide a series of methods based on a minimal cell cycle module in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe that allows for an unprecedented artificial control of cell cycle events, enabling the rewiring and remodeling of cell cycle progression.

Envisioning a better world of human and technology: theoretical and empirical considerations to connect communication scholarship to ethical technology design

ABSTRACT With the artificial intelligence and robotics revolution transforming science and society rapidly, ethical issues surrounding the development and use of advanced technologies are causing concerns worldwide. Despite communication scholars being well-positioned to tackle issues relevant to ethical technology development, we have conducted little research to inform and critique this space. This paper aims to advocate for better knowledge and approaches in ethical technology design and communication scholarship, and encourage communication researchers to contribute to technology design by leveraging communication expertise and borrowing scholarly insights from other fields. Specifically, we introduce foundational feminist technoscience theories and relevant technology design approaches, propose seven core design principles to aid communication research, and discuss how communication scholarship can benefit the space of technology.

Health based animal and meat safety cooperative communities

The purposes of meat inspection have been formulated for more than 100 years as (a) protecting health of consumers, (b) maintain the reputation of the meats in home and export markets, and (c) detecting communicable diseases of animals before they have spread beyond easy control. Today, one would add to protect animal welfare, clarify that protecting consumer health includes both chemical and biological hazards, and add food fraud to the issues of reputation. To transform the scientific knowledge into modern meat safety assurance systems (MSAS), the risk managers need to understand the social capital in the meat value chain to align the behaviors of farmers, food business operators and competent authorities with technical knowledge. The meat value chain could be perceived as a commons – a material or immaterial property held jointly by the members of a community, whom may govern access to and use of the property through social structures, traditions, and/or formal rules i.e. social capital. The social capital and food safety culture amongst farmers and food business operators is a key driver for successful meat safety while information asymmetry increases risks for a tragedy of commons scenario. Ostrom's core design principles for stable commons could inform the design of MSASs. Tools for reducing the information asymmetry and building trust and social capital between all stakeholders within the meat value chain include the food safety culture, food chain information, use of health epidemiological indicators, sensors and block chains, industry/private standards, and the applying system approach from farm to fork.

A theoretical essay on socio-technical systems design thinking in the era of digital transformation

Digital technology is here to stay. Currently, digital technologies are unleashing the fourth industrial revolution. This so-called digital transformation is about the integration of digital technology into all areas of society. Within organisations, work is fundamentally changing which impacts how organisations will operate and deliver value to customers. Furthermore, but often forgotten, it is also about a cultural change that requires organisations to continually challenge their status quo, experiment, and get comfortable with failure.Digital possibilities are emerging which cannot be viewed separately from social effects in organised (eco-)systems and for people in those systems. The challenge is to jointly optimise technical and social aspects for creating both added value in a sustainable manner and improve quality of working life. As we have an ‘organisational choice’, technical possibilities can be aligned with social needs and requirements, and vice versa. This alignment forms the basis of socio-technical systems (STS) thinking, which is necessary for developing sustainable organisational solutions. Sociotechnical theory and practice originally have a focus on optimising social and technical aspects in organisations. Therefore, we choose in this essay for an STS perspective, especially for the STS Design (STS-D) approach which is elaborated by the Lowlands STS school of thought. As digital technologies offer new affordances and constraints for organisational design, we aim, with this essay, to merge STS‑D with digital thinking.We start with a brief sketch of the understanding of current digital technologies. After this, we discuss organisational design in terms of the division of labour and the penetration of digital technology into the nature of work. Then, the STS-D’s core design principles and design sequence, specifically from the Lowlands school of thought, are introduced and adapted for digital thinking. This is followed by a section on design routines for unlocking the potential for designing future, digital-receptive workplaces and organisations. We end the essay with some closing remarks and reflections.

A Study on the Model of Career Anchor Career Competency Development Program for Middle School Students Using Gamification

본 연구의 목적은 중학생들이 재미있게 자신의 진로 역량을 기를 수 있도록 게임화를 적용한 커리어앵커 진로 역량개발 프로그램 모형을 개발하는 것이다. 이를 위해 선행연구 및 문헌분석, 요구조사를 실시하여 모형의 핵심가치와 설계원리, 초안을 도출하였으며 전문가 형성평가를 통해 초안을 수정 및 보완한 후 현장적용을 거쳐 모형의 최종안을 개발하였다. 연구결과 모형의 핵심가치는 ‘커리어앵커를 통한 나 이해, 미래 직업 세계와 나 연결, 창의적 미래 직업 설계, 재미있고 적극적인 진로활동’으로, 게임화를 통한 설계원리는 ‘명확한 목표와 규칙, 실제와 연계된 흥미로운 이야기, 선의의 경쟁, 신속한 피드백과 보상, 소집단 중심’으로 도출하였다. 핵심프로세스는 ‘내가 바라보는 나’→‘나의 참모습’→‘변화하는 직업 세계’→‘미래 나의 직업 창직하기’→‘미래 나의 직업 역할찾기’→‘미래 나의 직업 가상체험하기’→‘미래 역량찾기’→‘실천계획서 작성하기’로 구성하였으며 각 단계별 활동내용과 지원요소를 제공하였다. 본 연구는 게임화를 적용한 커리어앵커 진로 역량개발 프로그램 모형을 개발함으로써 중학생들이 자신의 진로경향성에 대해 알아가고 보다 즐겁게 진로를 탐색하며 자기주도적으로 진로를 설계할 수 있는 진로 역량을 개발할 수 있을 것으로 기대한다.The purpose of this study was to develop career competence development model for middle school students based on career anchor through gamification for help middle school students develop their career competencies in a fun way. To achieve the purpose of this study, I derived core values and design principles of the model by analysing literature, demands from field of the education. After modifying and supplementing the draft through expert formative evaluation, the final draft of the model was developed through field application. As a result of, the core values of the model were ‘to understand oneself by finding one's own career anchor’, ‘to link oneself with the world of work in future’, ‘to creative design for future of job’ and ‘to career activities with fun and active’. The design principles according to career activities with gamification through is articulate goals and rules, interesting stories, friendly competition, immediate feedback and rewards and interaction through team activities. The core process is ‘I see myself’ → ‘My true self’ → ‘The changing world of work’ → ‘Creating my future job’ → ‘Finding my future job role’ → ‘Virtual experience of my future job’ → ‘Future competency’ It consists of ‘Finding’ → ‘Writing an action plan’, and the activity contents and support elements for each stage are provided. The results of this study suggest that model of gamification applied career competence development program this empirical research will enable middle school students to explore their career paths and design for career plans.

From Theory to Practice: The Enacted Curriculum of a Successful Master's Program in Quality Improvement and Leadership.

Blended learning has taken on new prominence in the fields of higher and continuing education, especially as programs have shifted in response to teaching in a global pandemic. The faculty at the Jönköping Academy's Masters in Quality Improvement and Leadership program has been offering a blended learning curriculum, based on four core design principles, since 2009. We studied key features of the enacted curriculum to understand conditions that can support an effective blended learning model. We used a case study approach underpinned by interactive research. Document analysis, a focus group, individual interviews, and stimulated recall interviews were used for data collection. Themes were identified through qualitative content analysis and data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. We grouped data into six emergent themes that clarify the enacted curriculum of an established Master's program: focusing on a common purpose, developing technical and relational knowledge and skills, linking theory and practice in the workplace, leveraging collaboration for mutual benefit, concentrating on leadership and coaching, and applying a blended and interprofessional learning model. Educators faced with increased demands to be flexible and to offer opportunities for distance education can learn from this case example of effective teaching of quality improvement and leadership in a blended format.

“I’m Just Overwhelmed”: Investigating Physical Therapy Accessibility and Technology Interventions for People with Disabilities and/or Chronic Conditions

Many individuals with disabilities and/or chronic conditions (da/cc) experience symptoms that may require intermittent or on-going medical care. However, healthcare is an often-overlooked domain for accessibility work, where access needs associated with temporary and long-term disability must be addressed to increase the utility of physical and digital interactions with healthcare workers and spaces. Our work focuses on a specific domain of healthcare often used by individuals with da/cc: physical therapy (PT). Through a 12-person interview study, we examined how people’s access to PT for their da/cc is hampered by social (e.g., physically visiting a PT clinic) and physiological (e.g., chronic pain) barriers, and how technology could improve PT access. In-person PT is often inaccessible to our participants due to lack of transportation and insufficient insurance coverage. As such, many of our participants relied on at-home PT to manage their da/cc symptoms and work towards PT goals. Participants felt that PT barriers, such as having particularly bad symptoms or feeling short on time, could be addressed with well-designed technology that flexibly adapts to the person’s dynamically changing needs while supporting their PT goals. We introduce core design principles (adaptability, movement tracking, community building) and tensions (insurance) to consider when developing technology to support PT access. Rethinking da/cc access to PT from a lens that includes social and physiological barriers presents opportunities to integrate accessibility and adaptability into PT technology.

Professionals’ perceptions for designing vibrant public spaces: Theory and praxis

Public spaces are central to the wellbeing of city residents, but what exactly are the design principles that ensure the vitality of public space? How do professionals rank these principles? Do they share a common understanding of theory and praxis? Using a mixed research methodology, we attempt to answer these questions. We first identified eight design principles by reviewing 31 documents listed on ScienceDirect. The review suggested four core design principles and four cross-cutting design principles. Fulfilling all eight principles is challenging; therefore, we prepared a questionnaire distributed among design professionals to determine their priorities using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). We corroborated the results with interviews. Participants disagree on the rank of the eight principles. However, the four core principles topped the list because they align with the pillars of sustainable development. Possible reasons for the inconsistency include specialization, gender, and years of experience. The inability to differentiate between the theory of and theory in planning is another possible explanation. The AHP is a reliable decision-making tool and might foster citizen participation in developing design plans. Future research agenda must address limitations of the present inquiry, such as linkages between governance and the institutional setting of society on the one hand and its public spaces on the other.

Estrangement, immersion, and the future: Designing the speculative environments of the virtual reality “Museum of the Future”

This article examines the creation of three speculative environments within the Museum of the Future (MOTF), a virtual-reality environment (VRE) designed by Dstl to promote awareness of future defence and security technologies. In contrast to other areas of the MOTF, these speculative settings are experimental, and are intended to highlight the uncertainty of the future, using techniques of cognitive estrangement and other appropriate narrative and world-building techniques to encourage audiences to query their anticipatory assumptions and cognitive biases. The aim of this project is therefore to promote cognitive flexibility, enhance futures literacy (FL), and ameliorate against the effects of knowledge shields. After a brief overview of the three speculative environments, the article explores the contextual needs they were designed to address, and demonstrates how, through team composition and core design principles, as well as through the application of narrative techniques, the worlds described can offer audiences novel ways of considering possible futures.